Every Other Day
by Sheydos
Summary: Tifa and Cloud go about ther never changing lives in the uneventful Nibelheim attending their high school with their friends, Zack, Aerith, Yuffie and Vincent. But when complications and feelings develop they realise that their lives will have to change at some point, either for better...or worse.


Disclaimer: I do **not **own any of these characters, they belong to SquareEnix.

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The annoying alarm clock interrupted Tifa's peaceful dreams as she rolled, facing the cause of noise and fumbled for the 'off-button'. But as soon as the silence grew her tiredness dared her to close her eyes, just for five more minuets...she didn't give in though, she had a history test today that she couldn't be late for. Ugh, yet another Monday morning in your never changing, and uneventful Nibelheim.

As Tifa dragged herself from her bed and darted to the curtains she could see it was going to be a warm day judging by the brightness streaming in the opening, if the rain would hold up maybe it would be the first sunny day for spring. Every morning, Tifa secretly looked forward to opening these cream coloured curtains; it was the very reason that dragged her ass out of her bed in the mornings, beside the fact she had to go to school. Even on weekends she looked forward to opening them, to find _him _starting his day too.

As Tifa pulled the curtains back a little too enthusiastically, Cloud stared back at her through his window, just like every other morning. And just like every other morning he was dressed in only long tack pants making it hard for Tifa to stop her eyes drifting over is muscular chest. His blue eyes met with hers, his hair seemed unchanged just like the town they had grown up in all their lives and he would give a small smile and wave every morning. Tifa retuned a smile and wave too.

Cloud turned his head abruptly and Tifa assumed his name had been called and so she turned to her note book that lay on her bedside table. Opening it up to their last conversation they had relayed through their notes, Tifa turned to a blank page; one of the few remaining. I'll have to get yet another one tonight, she thought. As Tifa scribbled down her message that read, "_See you in history class__" _she held it up for Cloud to read before he rolled his eyes, nodded smiling and strode away.

Tossing the note book on top of the pile of the other notebooks filled with their small conversations sent through their windows that faced each others, Tifa made her way to her unsuit, passing her closet and picking out a simple white T-shirt and denim shorts. She loved the warm weather; it freed her from feeling constricted in all her layers of clothing during the winter.

After her shower and changing into her outfit she picked out earlier, Tifa dried and brushed her hair before stepping out of her small bathroom and jogging down stairs. As she walked into the small kitchen, she passed her father reading the newspaper.

"Morning dad," She chirped.

"Morning, sweetheart," her dad said as he paused reading his article and sipped his black coffee.

Tifa rummaged through both the refrigerator and pantry but couldn't find anything to eat. All of her pop-tarts had been eaten. She sighed and settled for an apple out of the fruit basket.

As she headed for the door, she kissed her father on the cheek and grabbed her navy back pack.

"See you!" She called out from the front door, opening it slightly.

"Okay, have a good day Tifa!" He called after her as she stepped out into the fresh air and began her journey to school. She knew Cloud would already be walking, he was a quick walker, it was hard enough having a conversation with him on your way to class, as Tifa always found herself half jogging and reminding Cloud to slow down. But Cloud found it amusing with her efforts to keep up with his pace.

It wasn't a long walk to school about 10 minutes at Tifa's pace but probably 5 for Cloud. Squeezing her way through the swarms of students in the hall she made it to her locker finding her best friend there too searching through her's. Probablysearching for her homework again, thought Tifa. Her friend had an odd habit of losing her homework or finishing it till the last minute.

"Hey Aerith," Tifa said as she withdrew her maths book from her dull locker compared with Aerith's brightly decorated one. As Aerith pulled her head out of her locker Tifa glimpsed the photo of her and her boyfriend Zack stuck on her door.

"Morning," she chirped as she closed her door, obviously giving up on whatever she was trying to find in her cluttered locker. Aerith was dressed in her usual style: girly and pink. It was funny how opposite they were, yet they were the best of friends.

"What were you trying to find in there?" Tifa asked as she closed the door on her locker.

"Ugh, my English assignment," Aerith muttered.

Yep, just like every other day, Tifa thought.

"Isn't that due today?" Tifa said as the two headed for homeroom.

"Yeah, but I'll just tell Mr. ShinRa that my dog ate it. No big deal." She shrugged.

"Ah, but Aerith, you don't have a dog...and you _always _use that excuse." Tifa laughed as they entered homeroom. But before Aerith could make up yet another excuse Zack rushed up behind his girlfriend hugging her from behind.

Aerith squealed before she turned around and gave him a kiss. Homeroom hadn't started yet and the room was filled with conversation of what everyone did with their weekend. Tifa found her usual seat and sat quietly drawing on one of the back pages of her note book. Tifa was creatively gifted both artistically and musically. Zack and Aerith followed Tifa to their seats beside her and continued talking animatedly about what they got up to on the weekend.

Zack was the class clown and was very popular in their year level. He had dark spiky hair that hung below his ears; it was no wonder Aerith liked him, although Tifa only considered him as friend, he wasn't bad looking. Aerith was lucky to have him, being involved with kick boxing and having his looks, almost every girl drooled over him and his best friend Cloud.

"Why are you drawing Cloud?" Tifa wasn't aware that Aerith was looking over her shoulder nor was she aware that the face on her page was similar looking to her close friend.

"I didn't even realise, how weird..." She said closing the book and paying attention to the student notices being read by Mr. Wallace, their homeroom teacher.

The morning seemed to pass in a blur. Tifa had a piano lesson first up; she was currently learning a song she was performing in upcoming contest. The song was called 'People Help the People' by Birdy and was turning put to be more difficult to learn than she first perceived it to be. Birdy was her favourite artist and she longed to be a singer songwriter just like her. Tifa would learn and practise all of her songs at home on the grand piano that stood in her living room which her mother had bought before she passed away.

After her lesson Tifa had math with Zack and Yuffie. She never really liked math but when Zack and Yuffie were in her class, she could never stop laughing. It wasn't her best subject but she always looked forward to it. Today's lesson they were starting a new topic of quadrates, but Tifa didn't focus so much on it, to amused by Yuffie's rude drawings and the crude jokes Zack would add to them.

But soon enough, lunch came and the six friends, Zack, Aerith, Yuffie, Vincent and Cloud were sitting at their usual table and talking loudly. Tifa was last to arrive, sitting down beside Yuffie who was talking about their math lesson and showing the pictures she drew. Everyone laughed at Yuffie's lack of creativity and the topic soon changed to the stories of everyone's weekend, except for Tifa. Nothing special happened on her weekend, just the norm, homework with the odd chore or two. It seemed pretty bland compared to Zack and Aerith's date at a cafe, and the rest who had their sport commitments. Yuffie apparently scored two goals in her soccer trials and Cloud had his usual training session at the gym. Vincent remained silent, just like every other day.

Cloud was talking to Zack who had his arm wrapped around Aerith's waist who was chatting to Yuffie. Tifa felt a sharp pang of jealously at the sight of Aerith in the arms of who she loved. Tifa wanted to focus on her education but she couldn't help wanting someone there to stand by, to feel safe in their arms. She already knew that Yuffie had a crush on Vincent who was silently sipping his soda, across the table from her. If Yuffie and Vincent got together, it would only be Cloud and herself, which would make things awkward between them and not mention only make other people make assumptions that they would get together next. But Tifa couldn't ignore the feelings she held for her blonde friend she had known for most of her life, who she had countless conversations through their windows. But the way Cloud would look away from her and fall silent, made her think that he didn't have that same feelings too. She'd just have to focus on education to keep her mind from wondering about having more than a friendship with Cloud, yet it had that addicting heart warming feeling every time she thought about it.

Cloud snapped her out of her daydream as she realised she had been starring at him the whole time.

"Tifa, you OK?" He asked.

Tifa looked down embarrassed.

"Yeah, sorry I was just thinking about the...the history test later today." She lied.

"That's today?!" Cloud said shocked, rubbing his forehead. Tifa knew it was his least favourite subject and smiled, reaching her notebook in her bag, giving it to Cloud.

"Here," she said as Cloud looked up to her confused. "They're the notes for the test. I don't need them."

Cloud smiled like he had this morning only to look away which made Tifa do the same. Slipping the notebook carefully in his black back pack, the bell rang signalling the students to their next lessons. All six of the students rose out of the seats and made their way out of the cafeteria. Zack and Aerith went about their goodbye making out session while Yuffie attacked Vincent into a hug. Tifa smiled at her friend's relationships with one another. It seemed they were deepening, improving with every passing year, everyone except for her and her feelings toward Cloud.

"See you in history, Teef'" Cloud said resting a hand on her shoulder as he walked past her in the direction of his next lesson. It lingered there for a moment before she nodded, blushing slightly. "And thanks again for the notes."

Tifa nodded again and stared after Cloud as he made his way through swarming sea of teenagers before disappearing. Tifa sighed. If only he felt the same...

Her art class went by quite slowly, it wasn't that she didn't like art, it was more that was distracted becuase she had her only class with Cloud next. She smiled, at least her Mondays always ended on a good note.

Walking to her next class, Tifa revised the test in her head oblivious to the world swirling around her.

"Ugh, what year did that happen?" She asked herself rounding the corner for the stairs before being shoved forward by a passing student. Tripping down a stair, Tifa was balanced by a larger hand around her wrist. As she looked up, she met an older boy's face inches from hers. He had dark blonde, short, spiky hair and brown eyes. She had only seen him twice in the time she had attended the school here and couldn't quite register his name.

"Whoa, there," he said with a beaming smile.

"Uh, thanks..." Tifa said awkwardly, still trying to search for his name in her mind as he released his hold as she balanced herself.

"Johnny." He finished her sentence, reading her mind and tucking a stray hair behind her ear. Tifa filched away and blushed slightly.

"Right, sorry." Awkward silence fell between them.

"Ah, history," Johnny pointed to the book of world wars Tifa clutched her arms. "That's my favourite subject."

Tifa looked surprised. She hadn't met anyone who loved the usually boring subject to others, too.

"Really?" She said bewildered.

"Yeah, why do you sound so surprised?" He asked.

"Uh, well, it's mine too. I've never met anyone else who does as well." She replied.

Johnny shrugged, "I like knowing how we came to be."

Tifa smiled, it was bizarre how she and this Johnny had something already in common, though they had never talked before.

"Uh, well I got to get to class now. Um, thanks again." She said shyly and began to descend the stairs.

"No problem, Tifa." He smiled again and climbed the stairs toward his next class, disappearing around the corner.

Tifa sat next to Cloud in her usual spot, but she couldn't stop thinking about the guy she had just met in the stair well. How did he know her when they had never met? Although he seemed polite and caring, he seemed a little too...what was the word...confident, maybe?

"Who was that guy you were talking to?" Cloud asked shaking her from her train of thought. His tone was strange, though Tifa payed no attention to it.

"Oh, he said his name was Johnny. We were just talking about history." She replied, skipping the bit off how she almost humiliated herself.

Cloud nodded and left it at that as the teacher finally arrived, bursting through the door and ordering the students to take their seats and prepare for the test before handing out the sheets.

Occasionally Cloud leant over trying to get a glimpse of Tifa's answers as she sat there double checking them when she had finished. I guess he didn't get time to read through all the notes; she thought and smiled at him. Tifa silently tared the corner of her notebook and began writing a message.

_I guess you didn't get time to read the notes then? Hahaha!_

Discreetly passing it over to her blue eyed friend, he read it under the desk smiling; he turned it over and wrote a reply on the other side. As he passed it back over to Tifa their fingers touched for a moment before Tifa brought the little note under her desk unfolding it, it read:

_Ugh. Mr. S made me and Zack run and extra 10 laps of the oval. I swear he hates us!_

Smiling, Tifa circled his grammatical error and re wrote it, before passing it back to Cloud with a grin.

_Zack and I!_

Cloud turned back to Tifa and rolled his eyes, shaking his head in dismay. Suddenly the bell rang ending the day as Tifa pushed her books into her back pack and walked up to the teacher, handing in her test. She waited for Cloud outside the class room watching the almost endless flow of students exit the class room.

A hand on her shoulder made her jump whirling around, only to find a grinning Johnny there, his eyes sparkling.

"How was history?" He asked still grinning.

This guy is either hooked up on happy drugs or he must always be abnormally happy, Tifa thought to herself with a smile.

"Err, it was alright, we just had a test." Tifa said. For some reason she felt strange around this Johnny she had only met today. But it was different from the strange feeling she got around Cloud. It was almost a terrifying feeling. Tifa shook it away, surely not. Not with a bright smile like his, she thought.

At that moment, Cloud rounded the corner standing on the other side of Tifa. It was weird, it seemed like the atmosphere had changed so suddenly.

"Oh um, Cloud this is the guy I was talking to before. This is Johnny." Tifa said breaking the silence.

Johnny's smile never faded as he greeted Cloud only to be acknowledged by Cloud's usual shy nod.

"Hey Johnny you coming?!" one of his friends called from down the hall.

"Well I have to go, I've got baseball practise, see you round'." He said patting his hand on her shoulder one more time. This made Cloud glare at Johnny.

"Oh uh, OK," Tifa stuttered as Johnny pinned her with his dark eyes once more.

The walk home with Cloud was usually silent but, there was unusual tension between them, Tifa could feel it. She was guessing it had something to do with Johnny.

"Have you got kick boxing tonight?" Tifa asked her quiet friend as she struggled to keep up with his pace.

"Yeah," Cloud replied his hands in his pockets and his eyes on the ground.

"How's it all going?" Tifa asked interested.

"Well _Zack and I_ have a tournament in a couple weeks time, so we're training pretty hard for that." Cloud mocked Tifa's grammatical correction and laughed. Tifa joined in. They had been the closest of friends since elementary school and Tifa was drawn to his awkwardness and shyness. They had always been next door to each other and were almost always seen together. It was no doubt that all the other students from their school thought they were together, though they denied it every time only making it awkward for them. Tifa was slowly understanding her feelings for Cloud with every passing day and seeing him as she opened her curtains. But with Cloud being friends with the popular Zack, other girls, more prettier girls from school felt the same thing, but not as deep as Tifa's connection to Cloud she could guarantee it.

As Tifa and Cloud continued their small talk just like every other day, Cloud said goodbye to her as he turned down the street to the kick boxing gym that both Zack and himself trained at.

When Tifa returned home, she went about her evening routine consisting of doing homework, cleaning up after diner which her father had picked up after work and folding her laundry. At nine o'clock Tifa retired to her room for the night changing into track pants and large T-shirt. After she brushed her teeth and stepped out of her unsuit, she noticed Cloud was home, at his usual time. He was now sitting on his bed reading through homework of some sort with perplexed expression.

Tifa turned to her bedside table looking for her notebook.

"Damn." She cursed as realised she had filled it; she'd forgotten to pick up another note book from the shops.

Tearing a page out of one of her school books she wrote,

_I would help you, but I've filled yet another note book, I'll see you tomorrow?_

As she tapped on the window, Cloud looked up and read her note. Smiling, he nodded and waved as Tifa drew her curtains only to be opened again tomorrow morning.

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_Author's Note: Hey there guys, here with another Cloud and Tifa fanfic. I'm really enjoying this story and am going to add more chapters to it, so watch this space! Oh and don't forget to leave a review, it would help out alot as I am trying to set this story in an American school, but being in Australia, have no idea, so please leave and ffedback to help me out! :D Thanks again! _

_~Sheydos_


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